Paris: In a men's singles badminton match in Group L, India's Lakshya Sen defeated Kevin Cordon of Guatemala 21-8, 22-20 in 42 minutes to set the 33rd Olympic Games off to a successful start.
Following an easy victory in the opening game, World No. 41 Cordon put up a fierce fight and nearly put Lakshya out of the second game with five match points at 16–20.
However, the Indian shuttler won six points in a row as he came back strongly to win the second game 22-20 to clinch victory, avoiding playing the third game.
It was a morale-boosting victory for Lakshya as Cordon was one of the stars at Tokyo, storming into the semifinals before narrowly missing the bronze medal.
Lakshya is in a tough group with World No.3 Jonatan Christie of Indonesia and Julien Carraggi of Belgium as the other contenders to top the group.
With inputs from IANS